From an OpEd from The Charlotte Observer today: "I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country," Tillis wrote on X. "He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force."

A reminder: the disaster that has been Pete Hegseth was completely avoidable, and Tillis can blame himself for it. Hegseth was supremely unqualified from the start, and Tillis had every reason to be skeptical about his leadership before he was even confirmed. And he was, until he folded at the last minute after President Trump threatened a primary challenge. Had Tillis had more of a spine, we might not have this problem.

Tillis may be right about Hegseth's incompetence, but he's the wrong person to be complaining about it. Which is why his post received thousands of replies from people who really didn't want to hear it.

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Tillis deserves every bit of the criticism he's getting. After years of watching Tillis undermine his own words with his actions, people are just tired of hearing it. He may be more willing to speak up now that he's retiring, but he often didn't have the courage to do so when it mattered. No amount of outrage or clever innuendo is going to change that.

As one commenter put it: "He put his career over his country, and in the end damaged both."